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By T. Prof. Ph. D. Egleston

THE importance of having perfectly pure metals has led me to present to the Institute a record of some of the trials that have been made to obtain these metals, and also to show one of the largest specimens of extremely thin metal plate which has ever been made. The malleability of metals varies generally directly with their purity, and hence it is only with very pure metals that thin sheets can be obtained. The competition among different manufacturers has been so great at times as to lead to expensive and apparently useless experiments in obtaining in the first instance very thin sheets, and afterwards very large and thin sheets of metal, apparently with no other purpose than that of being able to say that they had produced the thinnest or the largest thin sheet that had ever been made. These experiments were at first confined exclusively to iron, their object being to show the great dexterity of manipulation, as well as the purity of the metal manufactured. They have since been extended to almost all metals by electrical action, and have gone far beyond the limits of what was possible with purely mechanical means. The processes which have been used are rolling or hammering, electrical deposition in a vacuum, and lastly, electrical deposition on plates, easily soluble in acids. The first and last of these methods have been known and practiced for a very long time, having been used to make thin sheets of almost all the metals. The other is of quite recent application. In the iron manufacture, the strife to produce these thin sheets was commenced in the year 1865, by the Sligo Iron Works writing to a firm in Birmingham, England, on a sheet of iron containing 270 square centimeters, and weighing only 4.469 grams. For some time this was considered to be the thinnest sheet iron that could be made. T. W. Booker & Co., of Cardiff, England, however, produced a few months afterward, a sheet of the same size, weighing only 4.015 grams. This was succeeded by one rolled by Neville and Everitt, of Llannelly, weighing only 3.174 grams. This was followed by one from Hallam, of Swansea, which was 283 square centimeters in size, and weighed but 2.979 grams; and this by one rolled by R. Wil-

Jan 1, 1879

In 1970, the federal Clean Air Act was passed, promulgating limits on the emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) from large stationary sources that would affect local air quality. The brunt of this regulation was felt by the electric utility industry, especially those units generating electricity with coal-fired boilers. The law hastened development of a new industry, flue gas desulfurization (FGD), which is composed of three major segments: the electric utility, the FGD equipment suppliers (the scrubbing modules), and the scrubbing chemical suppliers. Dravo's experience suggested the equipment end of the business, but market analysis recommended investigating the chemical processes involved in the removal of the SO2 gas. This resulted in the formation of Dravo Lime Co. to manufacture and market reagents to the FGD industry. This paper will briefly describe the Thiosorbic lime scrubbing process and review Dravo's innovative mine and calcining facility.

Jan 1, 1982

By J. B. Hiskey

The hydrometallurgical application of thiourea in processing precious metal ores and concentrates has reached the development stage. This paper reviews recent technical literature covering the process development of thiourea leaching. In addition, recent fundamental contributions are discussed. Most of the interest in thiourea leaching has involved treating high grade concentrates that have sufficient value to just the use of thiourea as a reagent. An important development in thiourea technology is the addition of SO2 to the leaching solution. This procedure effectively reduces the decomposition of thiourea and eliminates the problems of passive surface layers that limit the leaching efficiency. Results for the thiourea leaching of a bulk sulfide concentrate and a residue from the autoclave leaching of a smelter flue dust are also reported. As determined by a standard bottle roll cyanidation test, the bulk concentrate was extremely resistive to cyanide leaching yielding only 16% gold and 2% silver extraction in 24 hours. Leaching with a relatively concentrated thiourea solution (1MCS (NH2)2) resulted in 83% gold and 75% silver extraction in four hours. With the treated flue dust residue, gold extraction was about 60%. Gold and silver extraction with cyanide was sensitive to both cyanide concentration and oxidizing conditions. Cyanidation resulted in 59% gold extraction and 77% silver extraction in 24 hours.

Jan 1, 1985

By Walter Bonsack

THE CHAIRMAN.-This is the third and last session of the Institute of Metals Division's Symposium on Secondary Metals, and certainly the best of those that I have attended in the last few years. I would say that the increase in interest in secondary metals is quite noticeable by the steadily increasing attendance at these meetings. We have heard about the necessity of utilizing salvaged materials, but we still speak about them as low-grade, or down-graded materials. We still have the wrong perspective. We must willingly admit that these materials are valuable; we cannot go on using the choicest primary metals as morsels for our economic diet in a war of such unbelievable dimensions. This brings up the question-why are we so selective. The answer certainly is not that we know nothing else will do, but rather that we do not know what else will do. To be honest, we should admit our lack of knowledge concerning our complex alloys. Compared to the organic chemists, we metallurgists are very conservative, and the sooner we realize this and start to overcome it the better, because if we do not eliminate this difference, many customers of the metals business will go over to the plastics. If we take for example the development of aluminum alloys, you will see what I mean. From the binary aluminum alloys of 1920, we have progressed to ternary and quarternary alloys in the 1930's. We are only now beginning to use more complex alloys as we are forced to learn more about the effect of various elements on existing alloys. The effects of these elements should be studied now. They can be studied by two methods of approach. The usual method is to start from the base alloy and add various elements one by one in increasing amounts and study the resultant changes in properties. This is a tedious, long way. The other method which the smelters frequently use is to take the off-grade heats and study their characteristics. While the producer of primary alloys often has difficulties in alloying certain elements with the alloy under investigation, the smelter often finds them well alloyed in his raw materials and has no difficulties at all. Elements such as lead are difficult to alloy with aluminum and they tend to segregate severely. However, the amount which will remain alloyed in the metal is usually found in some "secondary" aluminum alloys. If one considers such concentration as the saturation, then by dilution with the same type of alloy, but free of such element, one can produce numerous intermediary alloys for investigation. In this fashion one is fairly certain to get uniformly spaced concentrations of the element under investigation. Similar cases probably exist with other metals. Nevertheless, the amount of work necessary to study all possible combinations is still tremendous. Necessity forces us now to utilize alloys which contain more elements than we are accustomed to. It is, therefore, necessary to study carefully the more complicated alloys. In secondary aluminum we are working and using the alloys which contain as many as 6 to 10 elements and we have learned over a period of several decades to balance

Jan 1, 1943

The thirty-second annual meeting of the Montana Society of Engineers was held at Great Falls, Mont., on Apr. 10-12. The first day was given to the reception of visitors and the second day to the inspection of points of engineering interest. On Saturday, at the business meeting, the following officers were elected: President, Samuel Barker, Jr.; first vice-president, Charles A. Lemmon; second vice-president, George T. McGee; secretary and librarian, Clinton H. Moore; treasurer, Harry H. Cochrane; trustee for three years, Theodore Simons.

Jan 6, 1919

By Chester A. Fulton

SUPPLYING as it does a necessity for healthy animal and vegetable phosphate production is a most important industry. We human beings also are animal as this war so surely proves. Unlike many other elements no substitnite is available for phosphorus or its compounds. Marvelous as are modern plastics none can lake the place of phosphorus in making hone structures. As meassured in these times the phosphate industry is not a large industry. Output of phosphate rock, the original source of our agricultural and ,chemical phophates amounts to only some twelve million long tons per annum in the entire world. Phosphates are compounds of phosphorus, which is always found in nature combined with other elements. It never occurs in nature as such. The first choice of the element phosphorus is tie itself strongly to oxygen and then to water moisture - thus becomeing phosphlic acid. This phosphoric acid in turn hunts around for a base such as lime for instance and together they make phosphate of lime.

Jan 1, 1944

By AIME AIME

JOHN ROY THOENEN, supervising engineer of the non-metal mining section of the U. S. Bureau of Mines, was one of the founding fathers of the Industrial Minerals Division. For the first three years of its existence, through 1937, he was its Secretary-Treasurer, and during 1938 serves as its Chairman. Jack was born in Ithaca, Mich., No\,. 8, 1886, attended high school at the Soo, and then spent a year and a half at Michigan State. Apparently this was when the mining bug bit him, for he set out for the Michigan College of Mines. After leaving Houghton in 1907 he tried the motion? picture business for a year and had he stuck to it might have been living in a Hollywood palace by now.

Jan 1, 1938

By AIME

ALTHOUGH Thomas Savier Washburn, known always to his friends and associates as "Tom," entered this world in Minneapolis, the Flour Capital of America, and the tradition of flour milling was associated with his family name, he decided early to turn his back on such dusty pursuits and to court the Goddess of Fortune in the more romantic fields of mining and the metallurgy of iron and steel. Born in March 1901, his early education was gained successively in the Minneapolis public schools and the Blake School until 1918, and then in Phillips Andover Academy until 1920.

Jan 1, 1947

By AIME AIME

AS one of his friends asserted at the Galveston meeting last fall, T. V. Moore is one of the "thinkers" in his field. He is head of production research for the Humble Oil & Refining Co., with headquarters in Houston. He is also known in the Institute as a "doer" for his active participation in the affairs of the Petroleum Division and for his leadership in the formation of the present Gulf Coast Section, A.I.M.E.

Jan 1, 1940

By Richard A. Kesler, W. Michael Reed

Grindability or resistance to fine comminution is the fundamental issue involved in the application and sizing of grinding mills. Over the years, many theories for determining the amount of energy required for size reduction to a specified fineness have been proposed. The first published theory, introduced by P. R. von Rittinger in 1867, stated that the energy required for crushing or grinding is proportional to the increase in surface area produced. The surface area of a ton of particles of diameter (d) is proportional to (1/d), therefore the work input per ton for particles of diameter (d) would be proportional to (1/d). The second significant theory is that of F. Kick published in 1885. Kick said that the work required is proportional to the reduction in volume of the particles concerned. If (f) is the diameter of the feed particles and (p) is the diameter of the product particles, the work input relationship would be: [W =Ioq(f/p) 9] The "Third Theory" of F.C. Bond, introduced in 1951, states that the work required is proportional to the length of the new crack tips produced in particle breakage during crushing or grinding and equals work represented by the product minus that represented by the feed. This takes the form: [W=]

Jan 1, 1982

By William C. Overstreet, Paul K. Theobald, Jesse W. Whitlow

Monazite placers in a region of the Carolinas explored in 1951-1954 by the USGS are estimated to contain at least 53,000 short tons of thorium and 4600 short tons of uranium. None of these deposits is being mined. The 5200-sq mile area investigated extends northeast along the western Piedmont from the Savannah River in South Carolina to the Catawba River in North Carolina. Much of the region is 700 to 1100 ft above sea level. Gentle hills and broad interfluves give a local relief of 100 to 200 ft. This increases to 1700 ft at the west margin of the area where the east flank of the Blue Ridge is approached in South Carolina and the South Mts. are entered in North Carolina.

Jan 7, 1959

By L. M. Kaas

Maintenance costs comprise a large portion of total operating cost, 30% to 60% of the operating cost dollar not being unusual. Thus even a relatively small percentage reduction in this cost would represent a sizable increase to mining profitability. Mine and mill maintenance management is a complex problem. An effective maintenance manager must study the experiences of the past and make decisions based on that experience. Data Processing equipment-more specifically, the computer-can be an effective and economical tool to simplify the job of maintenance record-keeping and to aid in the formulation of many accurate and timely management reports. These reports will enable improved control to be established over day-to-day practices; permit comparisons of unit and component performance; spotlight inefficient maintenance practices; and further, better, more efficient cost control. The net result can be increased profits through reduction of operating costs.

Jan 12, 1967

By H. M. Howe

I WISH to present to you a few thoughts on some of the phenomena and laws of iron smelting. Owing to the great complexity of the subject, to the great variety of points to be taken into consideration, many of which are very poorly understood, and to the meagreness and even conflictoriness of our information with regard to some of the most important laws which govern the subject, the fruits of such thoughts as I venture to offer you must be received as speculations, not as facts. Nevertheless, in discussing old phenomena from new standpoints, thus furnishing a metallurgical parallax, if I may say so, these theoretical speculations may have their value in helping to a clearer comprehension of the phenomena and laws we now know, and in suggesting new lines of inquiry. While an increase of height in blast furnaces is not always followed by increase in their power of production, experience proves that it tends to increase it; for while we have many cases of short furnaces producing more iron than longer ones, yet enormous productions, such as those of the Lucy and Isabella furnaces of Pittsburgh, and of the furnaces of Esch sur l'Alzette, in Luxembourg, have never been reached in short furnaces. We may safely infer that height is an element essential to great production, though of course not the only essential element, and that, in the case of high furnaces which are not capable of great production, some other essential element is wanting. Moreover, experience teaches that within limits increase of height tends to increase the producing power in a still higher ratio. Thus, in the Esch furnace, which is 19.8 meters (65 feet) high, 393 tonnes (or 387 gross tons) of 312 per cent. Ore

Jan 1, 1877

By C. O. Brawner

Simple, specific rules for achieving slope stability in open-pit mines are impossible to devise. Each pit has a different mining program and a different set of environmental conditions, and its final slope design must be based on an individual evaluation of the actual site. The overall philosophy of pit stability, however, is tending towards a limit design concept. Since slope angle has a great influence on the economics of most open-pit mines, efforts are being made to reduce the theoretical factor of safety for slope stability to very near 1.0. (Factor of safety is here defined as shear strength/shear stress on the most probable plane of failure.) Actually, where detailed, statistically significant testing has been done and a comprehensive ground control program is being instituted to warn of movement at an early stage, safety factors as low as 1.1 or 1.2 may be justified. The cost of the necessary procedures, however, is high. There are many factors that influence stability, but this article will be confined to three-rock structure, groundwater, and blasting.

Jan 8, 1969

By AIME AIME

FOR many years it has been the invariable custom of the Institute, in addition to its annual meeting in February, to hold a technical meeting in the fall in some mining or metallurgical center in the West. As the activities of the Institute have increased, and especially since the absorption 'of the American Institute of Metals, there have for a number of years been two fall meetings. Never before in the history of the Institute have there been three meetings in addition to the annual meeting in February; in 1920, however, three important fall meetings are to be held. The general Institute trip will be made this fall to the Lake Superior iron and copper country. Members will leave Buffalo on August 20 by steamer, visit the copper mines in and about Houghton, the iron mines of the Marquette and Iron Ranges of Michigan and the iron mines of the Mesabi Range in Minnesota, and' return to Buffalo by steamer on September 3. Technical sessions will be held at Houghton, Minneapolis and Duluth. For a long period it was customary for the Institute to visit the Lake Superior country about every seven years. This trip, however, will be the first visit since 1904. The unprecedented development in both copper and iron mining in this section during this period will make this trip of unusual importance. In addition, a notable series of papers will be presented.

Jan 1, 1920

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Jan 1, 1949

By J. David Lowell

For the first time in several years, Chile is again opening its doors to foreign investment. In its new investment code, the Chilean government has announced its willingness to become a partner in joint Chilean-foreign projects for a number of government-controlled porphyry copper deposits at the developed, semi-developed, or prospect stage; and, that it will allow privately owned deposits or deposits discovered by new exploration to be developed with up to 100% foreign ownership. Three deposits of particular interest are: El Abra, with at least 300 million mt of +100% Cu; Los Pelambres, with at least 428 million mt of 0.78% Cu and 0.03% Mo; and Andacollo, with 350 million mt of 0.70% Cu and 0.015% Mo. (El Abra is almost entirely government- controlled; but both Los Pelambres and Andacollo are mostly under private ownership.)

Jan 11, 1974

By Thomas W. Wälde

BACKGROUND Foreign investment has been a major factor in bringing about the substantial mining industries of Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Brasil and Guyana. But economic nationalism and sentiment against foreiqn domination of vital national industries grew in the 1960s and most major mining projects were transferred into state owner ship. Among the state mining enterprises formed were CODELCO - Chile, MINERO-PERU/ CENTRCMIN - Peru, CCMIBOL - Bolivia (in 1952), Hierro-PERU, GUY-BAU/BIDCO - Guyana, etc. New investment during that time was discouraged because it was subject to the restrictive conditions of the investment regulations of the Andean-Pact, a grouping of Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia. The philisophy was that mineral resources were to be developed exclusively by national enterprises. Essential foreign inputs had to be acquired "depackaged" as separate purchases of equipment and technical assistance services. As a result of the worldwide economic recession which hit the mining industries in 1980-1982, many projects that were viable in 1970 were not developed by the new state enterprises due to lack of capital, managerial and technical abilities and due to problems with marketing. As a consequence of the long-term decline of metal prices, governments experienced difficulty in getting investment organized through national or foreign enterprises and have had to face up to the trade-offs between national control and active mineral development. A change has since taken place in governmental policies. The 1981 Peruvian mining law, the 1982 mining law of Uruguay, the 1979/1980 mineral promotion laws of Argentina, all witness the gradual shifting of emphasis from restriction to promotion. The investment rules of the Andean Pact have been progressively softened through national regulation and today are more or less irrelevant. Nationalizations and forced renegotiations have not occurred in the last few years. Countries have gone to great lengths (without much success) to re-attract foreign investment on terms that accommodate the political sensitivities of the South American countries and the practical requirements of investors and financiers. For this analysis, three contracts have been selected which reflect this accommodation in three South American countries, where miner a1 production plays a major role in the national economy. These con tracts reflect both the attitudes and traditions of the individual countries, but also mark the shift in mineral investment policies that has taken place. EL INDIO AGREEMENT The 1977 investment agreement between Chile and St. Joe Minerals marked a dramatic relationship between Chile and foreign mining investor s. In Chile, mining of copper has played a major role in the country's history. Large scale copper mining was initiated and developed by Kennecott and Anaconda. The nationalization of these two companies under the Allende government in July 1971 started a wave of nationalizations of foreign-held mining and petroleum operations since then in many parts of the world. The military government supported the new Chilean state mining companies ((30DELCO and ENMI) , but it also attempted to accelerate mineral development by prom ting foreign private investment, thus reversing the nationalistic policies followed by the Allende and the preceding Frei government. The new policy by the military government is expressed in Decreto-Ley 600 (1974) which governs foreign investment in Chile. Decreto-Ley 600 is

Jan 1, 1985

By Richard M. Foose

MOST of the roofing granules produced in Pennsylvania are made by two companies at three plants. The Advance Industrial Supply Co. has three quarries and a mill at Gladhill Station, in southern Adams County. The Funkhouser Company is actively engaged in mining, quarrying and milling at Charmian, about one mile west of Gladhill Station, and at Delta, in southern York County. These three plants produced approximately 100,000 short tons of granules in 1943. The production of roofing granules in 1937 for the whole country was only about 500,000 tons, generally indicating the large growth of the industry since that time. The fundamentals of producing roofing granules were discussed comprehensively by G. W. Josephson in a paper before the Industrial Minerals Division in October 1943 (Mining Technology, March 1944). The purpose of this paper is to describe the actual methods of mining the rock and milling it to make roofing granules, as practiced by the three Pennsylvania plants. MINING AND MILLING Funkhouser Company (Delta) The Funkhouser Company, near Delta, in southern York County, Pennsylvania, operates three joined quarries and a mine in the Peach Bottom slate. The joined quarries extend 1200 ft. in a northeast southwest direction along the strike of the slate cleavage and are about 200 ft. wide. The working face is about 45 ft. high. The quarrying operation is rather simple: Ingersoll-Rand Jackhamers, 1-in. and 1 1/4-in., with hollow drill steel, are used to undercut the quarry face with10-ft. holes. The face is "blown" and allowed to slump on the quarry floor. Loaded by a Marion electric shovel into trucks, the shattered rock is taken to the primary crusher 2500 ft. away. In addition to the normal quarrying operations, a drift into the northeast wall of the middle quarry was begun about 1935 and has advanced about 2000 ft. since then. Rooms have been driven at angles to the drift along choice beds of slate. The drifts and rooms have a roof more than 35 ft. high and the main drift and rooms are all more than 40 ft. wide. There is no cribbing at any place in the mine. Several of the rooms were driven upward on a 5º slope and in some of them there was stoping. Ingersoll-Rand Jackhamers are used, and only wet drilling is practiced. When visited in January 1940, an electric shovel was operating at the head of the drift, scooping up the slate blasted out of the working face. This, too, is trucked to the primary crusher. Some of the better quality slate is saved for making slate shingles. The primary crusher, which is a No. 30 McCulley gyratory, receives the slate from the trucks and crushes it to about 2-in. size (Fig. I). This product travels by a 30-in. belt conveyor to Niagara vibrating screens with 2-in. holes. The minus 2-in. product moves to a storage silo by bucket

Jan 1, 1945

By Joseph G. Debanné

Foreword The three case histories and the liquid fuels planning scenario presented in this paper span a twenty year period, from the pioneering days of computers in the petroleum producing industry during the mid-fifties, to the energy crisis era of the seventies. Inasmuch as two of the main actors, Ian McKinnon and I, are featured in all three case histories, while I am currently involved in the fossil fuels scenario, this paper provides four related and personal spot readings along an evolutionary path: from the one dimensional technical domain to the multi-dimensional techno-socio-economic domain of computer applications in the petroleum industry. Coincident with this evolution in the direction of increasingly comprehensive and powerful computer applications, the evolution in hardware/software capability and in analytical power are also kept in perspective. The three case histories are: 1. The Bonnie Glen-Wizard Lake Case (Calgary, Alberta, 1955-1957); 2. The TransCanada-Great Lakes Gas Transmission Case (Ottawa-Washington, 1966); 3. The Westcoast Transmission - El Paso Pipelines Gas Export/ Import Case (Ottawa-Vancouver-Washington, 1966-1967). The liquid fuels planning scenario is a demonstration exercise rather than a case history; however, it represents an important point on the evolutionary curve and, provides a concrete example of tech-

Jan 1, 1977